Trump: Judge’s Hispanic ethnicity matters in Trump University suit

Associated Press

BENTONVILLE, Ark.

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is trying to deflect attention from a class-action civil lawsuit involving the former Trump University by pointing to the ethnic background of the judge in the case.

Asked on “Fox News Sunday” what U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s ethnicity has to do with the lawsuit against him, Trump replied:

“I think it has to do perhaps with the fact that I’m very, very strong on the border, very, very strong at the border, and he has been extremely hostile to me,” Trump said.

According to the California class-action complaint in front of Curiel, a one-year apprenticeship that Trump University students were promised ended after students paid for a three-day seminar. Attendees who were promised a personal photo with Trump received only the chance to take a photo with a cardboard cutout. And many instructors were bankrupt real estate investors.

Trump University emerged as a campaign issue at Thursday’s GOP debate, raised by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

“There are people who borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University, and they’re suing now — $36,000 to go to a university that’s a fake school,” Rubio said. “And you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz jumped in, adding: “It’s a fraud case. ... I want you to think about, if this man is the nominee, having the Republican nominee on the stand in court, being cross-examined about whether he committed fraud.”

At a rally in Arkansas on Saturday, Trump took a break from his standard campaign speech to downplay the lawsuit pending against the business, which was founded by Trump and offered students instruction on real estate investments.

“It’s a small deal, very small,” Trump said of the suit, which could force him to take the stand this summer.

Trump specifically railed against the judge in the case, and at one point noted the judge’s Hispanic ethnicity.

Trump claimed the case should have been thrown out years ago, “but because it was me and because there’s a hostility toward me by the judge - tremendous hostility - beyond belief.” He then noted, as an aside: “I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He’s Hispanic — which is fine.”